Frankie Darro


Frankie Darro was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist. He is perhaps best known for his role as Lampwick, the unlucky boy who turns into a donkey in Walt Disney's second animated feature, Pinocchio. In early credits, his last name was spelled Darrow.

Early life

Frankie Darro was born on Saturday, December 22, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois, as Frank Johnson Jr. His parents, Frank Johnson, Sr. and his wife Ada, were known as The Flying Johnsons, and had been working for the Cook Shows organization: "The Flying Johnsons have signed with the Cook Shows for the summer season to do their ceiling walking and double ring act." After the baby was born, the Johnsons toured with the Sells Floto Circus, doing an acrobatics and tightrope walking act. Frankie's father trained him in the profession, and he cured Frankie's fear of heights by having him walk on a length of tightrope wire, gradually raising the height of it until his son had mastered the trick.
In 1922, while the circus was in California, his parents divorced, and their circus act ended along with their marriage. The growing film industry, however, found a use for a small child who could do his own stunts. The young Johnson, renamed "Frankie Darro", appeared in his first film at the age of six.

Acting career

As a child actor, he appeared in many silent adventure, western, and serial pictures of the 1920s. He received good notices for his dramatic ability: "Little Frankie Darro is one of the cleverest child actors on the screen, and he has quite a part in The Signal Tower."
In 1931, Darro was featured in director William A. Wellman's major success The Public Enemy. This led to frequent assignments at Warner Bros., including Mervyn LeRoy's Three on a Match and The Mayor of Hell, in which he was the principal character. Director Wellman cast him as the lead in Darro's most important role during the 1930s, Wild Boys of the Road, an indictment of teens vagabonding across America during the Depression. From then on, Darro was usually cast as a pint-sized tough guy, although he also played wholesome leads in mysteries and comedies.
Frankie Darro was arguably the best juvenile actor in Hollywood, as reflected by his constant employment in the 1930s. Producer Nat Levine of Mascot Pictures valued him: he starred in six adventure serials from 1931 to 1935, with his salary increasing with his popularity: he earned $1,000 a week for The Vanishing Legion, $2,000 a week for The Lightning Warrior, $3,000 a week for The Devil Horse, $4,000 for The Wolf Dog, and $5,000 a week for Burn 'Em Up Barnes. Darro was reunited with western star Harry Carey in two of the serials; Carey and Darro had worked together in silent features. Darro might have continued as a serial star, but Levine's Mascot studio was bought out by Herbert J. Yates, who created Mascot's successor Republic Pictures. The cost-conscious Yates opted not to meet Darro's established salary. Darro signed instead with producer Maurice Conn of Ambassador Pictures, where he starred in a series of modestly budgeted action features through 1937.
Darro's standing in the industry increased, but his height did not. He stood only 5'3", limiting his potential as a leading man. His wiry, athletic frame and relatively short stature often typecast him as a jockey, in such films as The Ex-Mrs. Bradford, Charlie Chan at the Race Track, and A [Day at the Races |A Day at the Races]. With the play and film Dead End creating a vogue for "tough street kids" stories, Darro signed with Columbia Pictures for two action features, Reformatory and Juvenile Court; he also played a sympathetic role in Columbia's popular serial The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok.
In 1938, Darro joined Monogram Pictures to star in a series of action melodramas. Darro's flair for comedy gradually increased the laugh content in these films. By 1940, Monogram hired Mantan Moreland to play his sidekick. The Frankie Darro series was so successful that Monogram used it as a haven for performers whose own series had been discontinued: Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, and Keye Luke joined Darro and Moreland in 1940, and Gale Storm was added in 1941.
Darro served in the US Navy Hospital Corps during World War II. He contracted malaria while enlisted. Upon his return to civilian life, Monogram welcomed him back and cast the perennially youthful Darro in its The Teen Agers campus comedies. When that series ended, the studio gave Darro four featured roles in its popular Bowery Boys comedies, including a co-starring role in Fighting Fools. This was the last film in which he played a lead; thereafter he accepted smaller roles and did stunt work for other actors in various films. Darro's last assignment for Monogram was as a stuntman, doubling for Leo Gorcey in Blues Busters in 1950.

Later life

Darro's recurring malaria symptoms caused him to increase his alcohol intake for pain management, and this affected his career. As film and TV roles became fewer, Darro opened his own tavern on Santa Monica Boulevard, naming it "Try Later," after the response he most often received when he asked Central Casting for work. His new occupation proved unwise, however, given his heavy drinking. By the mid-1950s, he had become too risky for producers to hire steadily.
Frankie Darro is probably best known to modern audiences for two films in which he isn't even seen: Walt Disney's Pinocchio, and Forbidden Planet. He was fired shortly after an early scene because of his having consumed a five-martini lunch prior to the scene being shot; he nearly fell over while attempting to walk while inside the expensive prop.
Darro's last featured appearance in a motion picture was in Operation Petticoat. He did continue to play small parts well into the 1960s, mostly on television: The Red Skelton Show, Bat Masterson, Have Gun—Will Travel, The Untouchables, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Addams Family, and Batman. He also did voice-over work for various projects.

Selected filmography